All She Needed Was A Laugh
by ArnoldThePigmyPuff
Summary: Hermione is glad that she finally has a moment to herself, that is until a certain redheaded boy drops in and disturbs it! Why? Maybe his joke has a little more to it then she thinks.


All She Needed Was A Laugh

The sound of dripping rain and crackling fire filled the almost empty Gryffindor common room. Almost empty, as it was still occupied by a bushy haired girl curled up with a book on one of the comfy, gold trimmed chairs that surrounded the fire place. She was so engrossed in her book that she had not notice her friends slowly trickle off to bed as the night had progressed into the wee hours of the morning.

In fact, she may have continued on reading the whole night had she not been distracted by a bright light floating in front of her. The light hovered roughly a metre from her face, emitting a piercing blue light all around the common room. Hermione had been so distracted by her book that she had not noticed where it had come from. She began to reach for her wand as the sphere began to change. The glow from it was unwavering, but the shape began to grow and contort. Just as the light reached the shape and size of a quaffle it exploded creating a noise that racked the tower and covered Hermione head to toe in a thin layer of blue glitter.

Not far behind the blast came a lanky redheaded boy bounding down the stairs of the boys dormitory. "Brilliant, that was, if I don't say so myself." Said the boy, who after a slight examination by Hermione she determined was no other then Fred Weasley. He was completely unaware of the violent shade of red that had crept up and covered Hermione face, as it was completely covered in sparkles.

"Brilliant? Is that what you think?" Hermione sputtered the words out through a mouth full of glitter, her voice becoming more and more perturbed sounding as she progressed. "Brilliant is it that you most likely just woke up the entire tower, and managed to ruin the first quite time I have had in weeks, and my book!" the pages of her book that had been open during the attack were completely unreadable through the glitter.

"Whoa, Hermione it was only a joke, a bit of harmless fun. Don't get your knickers in a twist." Fred said.

"Well it wasn't fun for me Fred. Has it ever occurred to you to think about the jokes you pull and what effect they will have on the people you pull them on, before you go through with them?" she said a hit of tiredness in her voice.

"That is exactly what I do. Look at tonight for instance," he said sitting down in the plushy chair beside her. "I thought about the joke, what you just experience is something that George and I like to call the Glowing Globe, the newest of our Wizarding Wheezes. No one has seen it yet, that is except for you. I also thought about a cleanup system, as we created a spell that will vanish away all the glitter, leaving no collateral damage. I also thought about you. You are much to stressed out for obvious reasons, Umbridge, The DA, being best friends to the Boy Who Lived, good reasons to be stressed. However, Hermione you are letting it get to your head, it's going to drive you insane. So, I'd figured that I would play a little joke, yeah maybe you'd be a little mad but I also figured I'd get a little laugh out of you. Maybe a laugh is what you needed to lighten up. I guess I was wrong in that respect."

Perhaps she had been too quick to judge the actions of the redhead sitting beside her. He was right the stress really was getting to her, and he truly seemed to want to help her. "But why do you want to help me? Am I not always taking points of you and George? And confiscating your merchandise from the first years?"

"So what? We just make more stuff. Anyway I like you Hermione and I don't really want to see you become this big ball of stressed out angst that collapses in on itself." "Thanks I guess? And I'm sorry I freaked out a bit on you at first. You are right all the stuff that's going on has been getting to me." She said meekly, a small smile on her face.

"It's fine, how were you supposed to know how much of an amazing person I am?" He said with a goofy grin that spread ear to ear, getting the witch beside him to finally laugh just a little bit. "Oh, umm, Hermione I think you've got a little bit of blue on your face just there." he then made a swooping gesture indicating to her entire body.

"Ha, ha very funny do you think you can get rid of all of this now? I'm not sure I want to go to class tomorrow looking like a giant blue disco ball."

"A disca what?" Fred asked, a look of sheer confusion crossing his face.

"It's this sparkly ball Muggles hung from their ceilings in the 80's, it doesn't matter. Can you fix my book first?"

"What you don't trust me? Do you think that I'm going to play another joke on you after how well the first one went? Really Hermione I am hurt by your lack of faith in me." He joked. "Fine book first, hand it over." Taking the book from her out stretched hand he placed it on his lap. Placing the tip of his wand on the left side of the open pages he drew a line across to the other side while saying _gelagio._ The glitter slowly faded away from the pages, to reveal the words underneath. Once all of the glitter disappeared he handed the book back to Hermione. "Trust me now?"

"Just get on with it." She said with a little shake of her head. He lend over placing his left hand on her cheek tilting it up so he had a better view of her face. With his other hand he placed he wand on her forehead and gently slide it across whispering the spell. As the sparkles slowly melted away Fred dropped his wand hand, but left the other gently resting on Hermione's cheek. As the glitter continued to withdraw Fred slowly lend in closer to Hermione, their eyes locked on one and other. He hesitated just enough to see if she'd pull back. When she didn't he closed the distance between them and softly brushed her lips with his own. She grab hold of the tie hanging loosely around his neck and pulled him closer to her deepening the kiss. They only broke apart when the two of them were at a desperate need for air.

A bright blush covered both of their faces. Hermione slowly stood up and brushed out the wrinkles in her skirt. "I, ummm, should probably head to bed now." She said slightly awkwardly. She turned and began to make her way towards the staircase.

"Wait Hermione, would you like to accompany me to Hogsmeade this weekend?" he asked.

"There's no trip to Hogsmeade this weekend." She eyed him suspiciously.

"I know, it doesn't mean we can't go." He said mischievously.

"You're not going to play another joke on me are you?" She asked apprehensively.

"I probably will, see how well this one went."

"Goodnight Fred." She said with a laugh in her voice as she turned and walked up the staircase, feeling like the weight of a hippogriff had been lifted of her shoulders. Maybe a laugh was just what she needed and she knew exactly where to get it from.

_A.N.: Hi! This is my first fic and it would be great to hear what I can do to improve. So if you have time it would be great if you could leave a review! Thanks a lot. :)_


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